[Salon] CONFRONTING THE CONTRADICTION BETWEEN ZIONISM AND JEWISH MORAL AND ETHICAL VALUES -

This article will appear in the Fall 2024 ISSUES, the quarterly journal of the American Council for Judaism. CONFRONTING THE CONTRADICTION BETWEEN ZIONISM AND JEWISH MORAL AND ETHICAL VALUES BY ALLAN C. BROWNFELD ——————————————————————————————————————————- Recent events in Gaza and in the West Bank have caused an increasing number of Jewish Americans to see a dramatic contradiction between the conduct of the Israeli government and traditional Jewish moral and ethical values. Students of history note that this contradiction existed from the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, but that recent developments have made this obvious to an increasing number of people of all religious backgrounds. Equally clear is the manner in which many American Jewish organizations and religious bodies have defended whatever the Israeli government did, whether it was morally right or wrong. Israel suffered a grievous terrorist assault on Oct. 7, 2023. Its response has been massive and is still in process at this writing. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s campaign in the Gaza Strip , the local Health Ministry said on August 15. According to the Health Ministry, the majority of the dead are women and children. At least 92,401 have also been injured. According to the Washington Post (Aug. 16, 2024), “Palestinian journalists, first responders, international aid workers and war-casualty watchdogs, all say the official death toll in Gaza is probably an undercount…After months of bombardment and siege, thousands of bodies are still believed to be buried under the rubble, according to Gaza’s civil defense force.” Criticism Within Israel Is Widespread Israel’s conduct of the war has been sharply criticized within Israel itself.. The newspaper Haaretz (Aug. 15, 2024) published an editorial with the headline, “Israel’s use of Human Shields on the Battle Field Is a War Crime.” It declared: “The practice that Haaretz exposed of military units forcing civilian residents of Gaza to serve as human shields—-searching tunnels and buildings before the forces enter, while wearing army uniforms and sometimes also protective vests to give them the appearance of IDF soldiers—is a war crime….Many of the prohibitions specified in the laws of war are the consequence of atrocities experienced in wars, especially World War 11. The prohibition against using enemy civilians as human shields is one of them.” The International Criminal Court is currently considering a request by the Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, for arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister and Defense Minister. One of the conditions for the ICC’s jurisdiction is that the Israeli justice system is unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute war criminals. In August, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem issued a report entitled “Welcome to Hell,” highlighting a variety of human rights abuses in Israel. This report was largely ignored by the Israeli media. Torture of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, it found, is widespread. Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) in August reported about one Palestinian inmate who died with a ruptured spleen and broken ribs after being beaten by Israeli prison guards. Another met an excruciating end because a chronic condition went untreated. A third screamed for help for hours before dying. According to PHRI, at least 13 Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel have died in Israeli jails since Oct. 7. An unknown number of prisoners on the Gaza Strip have also died. Serious Abuse Of A Sexual Nature Inside Sde Teiman, a facility on a military base in the Negev desert that holds Palestinian detainees captured in Gaza, nine reservists were detained after “serious abuse” of a sexual nature of a detainee. Newly released detainees say that torture, sexual abuse and deprivation of food are widespread. A CNN investigation found that newly released Palestinian detainees describe being beaten, denied medical care and made to kneel handcuffed and blindfolded for days. The Tel Aviv-based Association for Civil Rights In Israel (ACRI) declared that, “The conditions at Sde Teiman gravely violate both Israeli and international law. Its continued operation is not just illegal—-it’s a potential war crime.” When it comes to the West Bank, which Israel has occupied in violation of international law for more than 50 years, its current government no longer supports the two-state solution which the U.S., under both Republicans and Democrats, has advocated. Indeed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the creation of a Palestinian state and members of his Cabinet call for annexing this territory and expelling its indigenous Palestinian population. Largest Seizure Of Land In Three Decades Recently, Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the West Bank in over three decades, reported the Associated Press ((July 3, 2024): “Israel’s aggressive expansion…reflects the settler community’s strong influence in the government…Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself, has turbocharged the policy of expansion…saying he aims to solidify Israel’s hold on the territory and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.” Authorities approved the appropriation of 12.7 square kilometers (nearly 5 square miles of land) in the Jordan Valley . It was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo Accords . Settlement monitors said the land grab connects Israeli settlements along a key corridor bordering Jordan, a move which undermines the prospect of a contiguous Palestinian state. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric called it “a step in the wrong direction,” adding that “the direction we want to be heading is to find a negotiated two-state solution. According to the U.N., more than 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Much of the international community condemns these settlements as a violation of international law. Netanyahu More Interested In Political Survival Than Israel’s Future The former head of Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence agency, Ami Ayalon, told Christine Aminpour on CNN (June 24, 2024)that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu “is more interested in his own political survival than in Israel’s future. He does not want to end the war or the occupation of the West Bank. On this path, we won’t have democracy and, in the end, we won’t have sovereignty. There needs to be a day-after plan, which we do not now have.” Ayalon declared that, “Netanyahu’s toxic leadership will lead to the end of Zionism.” In recent days, settlers have become increasingly violent toward Palestinians. Nader Weiman, a former Israeli Special Forces soldier, is now director of Breaking the Silence, an organization of former Israeli Army veterans that advocates an end to Israel’s occupation. He said settlers have stepped up attacks on Palestinian communities while the world’s attention was focused on Gaza. The U.N. Humanitarian Affairs office has recorded more than 650 attacks against Palestinians since Oct. 7. Settlers have killed at least 9 Palestinians and Israeli security forces have killed more than 400. Asked why settlers destroyed schools, Weiman responds: “Because you want families to feel they are not safe here. With no school here, the kids cannot return. And if you do not have kids, you don’t have life. It’s not just about stealing livestock, it’s about destroying the sense of being at home.” Assault On West Bank Has No Reason Or Justification Writing in Haaretz (Sept. 1, 2024), Gideon Levy notes that, “Over the 11 months of war, Israel has ripped up the West Bank…The current assault has no reason or justification. Israel has exploited the war on Gaza to cause turmoil on the West Bank…The Army, Shin Bet, Border Police …and violent settler militias blend into each other…There has not been a pogrom in which soldiers weren’t present and did nothing to stop it…Tens of thousands of acres were expropriated and robbed over these months. Roadblocks have also returned in full force. You cannot move from one place to another in the West Bank without encountering them.” On July 19, the International Court of Justice, the top judicial arm of the U.N., said Israel should “bring an end to its illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, cease new settlements and pay reparations to Palestinians who have lost land and property.” The Court said Israel is responsible for “systematic discrimination” against Palestinians based on race or ethnicity “and breached their right to self-determination. In advance of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to Washington in July, the Knesset passed legislation opposing the establishment of a Palestinian state. In an editorial entitled “Israel’s Continued Denial of the Reality of the Occupation,” Haaretz (July 21, 2024) declared: “The opinion by the International Court of Justice revealed nothing to Israelis that they do not already know. The opinion shatters the lie that the occupation is only temporary and intended only for security purposes. This is the lie Israelis told themselves during decades of occupation while they seized more and more Palestinian land and built settlements on it. The opinion bursts this bubble of lies and views various acts of the Israeli government as annexation of the territory….Israel’s working assumption that the world will continue to ignore the occupation has been shattered…Israel…may wake up to a reality in which it is boycotted and ostracized like apartheid-era South Africa.” “War On The Palestinian People” On Aug. 28, hundreds of Israeli troops launched raids in several areas of the West Bank,carrying out mass arrests, and killing at least 10 Palestinians. Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, described the operation as “a continuation of the comprehensive war on the Palestinian people, our land and our holy sites.” He called on the U.S. to intervene. “The world must take immediate and urgent action to curb this extremist government,” he said. Few Americans of any religious background understand the harsh bigotry which motivates leaders of the settler movement. Rabbi Meir Kahane was expelled from the Knesset for racism and terrorism in an earlier era. He proposed legislation that was very much like the Nazi Nuremburg Laws, making marriage between Jews and non-Jews illegal. Now, he is a hero to the settler movement. Beyond Meir Kahane, heroes of this movement include the former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, Ovadiah Yosef. In a weekly sermon to the nation, he declared that the “only reason for the existence of non-Jews is to serve Jews.” His funeral in 2013 was considered the largest ever in Israel with crowd estimates reaching 800,000. He is a hero in Israeli society, with his picture on postage stamps and many streets carrying his name. Another rabbi widely admired by the settler movement is Rabbi Kook the Elder, who said: “The difference between a Jewish soul and the soul of non-Jews—-all of them in all different levels —-is greater and deeper than the difference between a human soul and the souls of cattle.” Bigotry In The Settler Movement Few Jewish Americans are aware of the bigotry which characterizes the Israeli settler movement and is to be found in much of ancient Jewish literature. Consider this statement from Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who headed the Chabad movement: “The difference between a Jewish and a non-Jewish person …We have a case between totally different species. The body of a Jewish person is of a totally different quality than the bodies of (members) of all nations of the world…A non-Jew’s entire reality is only vanity…The entire creation of a non-Jew is only for the sake of the Jews.” Mordechai Nisan, a lecturer at the Hebrew University, wrote in an official publication of the World Zionist Organization, that a non-Jew permitted to reside in the land of Israel “must accept paying a tax and suffering the humiliation of servitude…Non-Jews must not be appointed to any office or position of power over Jews.” Reform Judaism, at its beginning, abandoned the bigotry to be found in the Talmud and other Orthodox religious writing. It looked to the God of the Prophets , who was not a God for Jews alone, but the Lord of all creation. Second Isaiah proclaims God the God of all people. In chapter 56 of the Book of Isaiah we find the passage epitomizing universalism: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” One God For All People The idea of one God for a particular people was not the unique contribution of the Jews. There had been other peoples who promoted such ideas. Judaism’s unique contribution was the idea of one God for all peoples, representing a single standard of morality with one set of moral values applying universally. This was the revolution in religious thinking the Hebrew Prophets brought about. The Prophet Amos helped to move Judaism away from being a narrow tribal religion to that of a universal faith open to all believers. The Prophet Hosea called for justice tempered with love. In Hosea’s view, God was always ready to pardon his people as soon as they repented. In his book “Meet The Prophets,” published by the American Council for Judaism, Rabbi David Goldberg writes, “…the transition from the clerical to the prophetic—which finally crystallized Judaism into a religion centered on ethical monotheism.” As Zionism emerged in the late 19th century, it was rejected by the leading religious figures of the day. For Reform Jews, Zionism contradicted their belief in a universal prophetic Judaism. The first Reform prayerbook eliminated all references to Jews being in exile and to a Messiah who would restore Jews throughout the world to the historic Land of Israel. The distinguished rabbi and author Abraham Geiger declared that the essence of Judaism was ethical monotheism. The Jewish people were a religious community destined to carry on a mission “to serve as a light to the nations , to bear witness to God and His moral law.” The dispersion of the Jews was not a punishment for their sins, but part of God’s plan whereby they were to disseminate the universal message of ethical monotheism.” Rejecting Nationalism “Of Any Variety” In November 1885, Reform rabbis meeting in Pittsburgh wrote an eight point platform which emphasized that Reform Judaism “rejected nationalism in any variety.” In the wake of growing antisemitism in Russia and Eastern European at the end of the 19th century and the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s, many Jews began to look positively upon the idea of creating a Jewish state in Palestine as a refuge for those being persecuted. Jewish groups in the U.S. that had always opposed Zionism, slowly began to view it more favorably. They ignored the fact that Palestine was already populated. The early Zionists not only turned away from the Jewish religious tradition, but Jewish moral and ethical values as well. They launched a campaign of terrorism in Palestine to remove as many of the indigenous population as possible. In April 1948 the Zionist Irgun and Lehi forces launched an attack on the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin. Inhabitants of the peaceful village were lined up against the wall and shot. More than 100 victims, mostly women, children and older people, were killed. As the Zionists had planned, news of the massacre spread rapidly and helped prompt the flight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. Irgun leader Menachem Begin, a future Israeli prime minister, issued this message to his troops after the attack: “Accept my congratulations on this splendid act of conquest…As in Deir Yassin, so everywhere, we will attack and smite the enemy. God, God Thou hast chosen us for conquest.” The Goal Of Removing Palestine’s Indigenous Population The Zionists admit that removing the indigenous Palestinian population was their goal. As early as 1937, Israel’s future prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, told the Zionist Assembly: “In many parts of the country it will not be possible to settle without transferring the Arab fellahin (peasants)…With compulsory transfer we would have a vast area for settlement..I support compulsory transfer.” What the Zionists committed, declares Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, was “ethnic cleansing.” Since Israel’s creation, much of the organized American Jewish community has transformed itself into a defender of whatever that state pursues. Israeli flags fly in many synagogues and Israel and “the Jewish people” often appear to be the object of worship, not God. This becomes a form of idolatry, much like the Golden Calf in the Bible. Now, as Israel’s war in Gaza has cost the lives of more than 40,000 Palestinians and as settlers in the West Bank continue their assault upon its Palestinian residents and the Israeli government rejects the creation of a Palestinian state, more and more Jewish Americans are expressing dismay with Israel and the American Jewish institutions which support and defend it. Jewish Demonstrators Arrested In U.S. Capitol In July, U.S. Capitol Police arrested Jewish demonstrators protesting U.S. weapons sales to Israel inside the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building, a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Congress. The protest, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, included rabbis, students, and descendants of Holocaust survivors. The group is “horrified and dismayed “ that elected officials would meet with Netanyahu, said Sonya Meyerson-Knox, a group spokeswoman. The Washington Post (July 24,2024) reported that, “…hundreds of protestors sang ‘Let Gaza. Live’ and ‘stop genocide’ and sat in a circle around a banner which read ‘NO ONE IS FREE UNTIL EVERYONE IS FREE.’ They wore red shirts that read ‘JEWS SAY STOP ARMING ISRAEL’ and clapped as they sang ‘Not In Our Name.’ Protestors unfurled banners, including one that said: ‘TIKKUN OLAM=FREE PALESTINE,’ referring to the Hebrew phrase that means to repair the world. Several protesters wore hand-made prayer shawls…and the words ‘NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE.’” Rabbi Linda Holtzman, leader of the social Justice community Tikkun Olam Chavurah in Philadelphia said there is a “mass murder” happening in Gaza and believes the path to a cease-fire includes an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. Holtzman said that there needs to be a political decision about the future of Israel and she hopes to see a future that Palestinians and Israelis can decide together. Sanctity Of Life At The Heart Of Jewish Tradition Rabbi Holtzman said that, “It’s incredibly important for me to be here as a rabbi and as a Jew because at the heart of Jewish tradition is the sanctity of life. We can’t sit back and watch people being killed and not stand up. That feels, to me, like a serious anti-Jewish thing to do.” An American Jewish military intelligence officer has resigned to protest U.S. support for Israel, saying that what is happening to the Palestinians there reminds him of the Holocaust. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (June 6, 2024) ”Major Harrison Mann submitted his resignation to the military and to the Defense Intelligence Agency…He said, ‘As the descendant of European Jews, I was raised in a particularly unforgiving moral environment when it came to the topic of bearing responsibility for ethnic cleansing…My grandfather refused to ever purchase produce manufactured in Germany—-where the paramount importance of ‘never again’ and the inadequacy of ‘just following orders’ were oft repeated,’ Mann wrote in the letter.” Mann continued, “I am haunted by the knowledge that I failed those principles. But I also hope that my grandfather would afford me some grace, that he would still be proud of me for stepping away from this war, however belatedly.” Mann told the JTA that he was not saying that the war in Gaza was the same as the Holocaust: “I think there’s no benefit in weighing tragedies against each other, and it’s not what I’m trying to do. Obviously, the Holocaust was much bigger, but that doesn’t mean that smaller massacres of innocent people (also) shouldn’t happen.” Recalling Jewish Prayer At Buchenwald Mann also said his thinking was inspired in part by his experience visiting Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, while participating in training for U.S. intelligence officers. He recalled seeing the photograph of Jewish U.S. soldiers leading a prayer service for liberated prisoners at Buchenwald. He recalled, “That was the most proud I ever felt to be in the same Army as these men. It’s hard not to think back to that when we are seeing —-again—-photos of starved, emaciated children and burned corpses. I am now contributing to that instead of being the ones who liberated them.” Mann’s resignation came thirteen years into his military career, which began after he graduated from the College of William and Mary. The first Jewish government staff member to publicly resign was Lilly Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff of the Department of the Interior. She said, “there are so many others who feel this way.” Professor Emeritus Yakov Rabkin of the University of Montreal, author of the book “What Is Modern Israel?,” provides this assessment: “The new state of Israel placed Palestinian Arabs under military rule, which lasted nearly two decades. Refugees and exiles who tried to return to their homes were killed, expelled or arrested…the murderous attack of Oct. 7, 2023 obviously enraged most Israelis. But instead of taking pause, military and political leaders immediately subjected Gaza to massive bombardment followed by a ground invasion. This caused a humanitarian crisis.” Demonization Of Palestinians Is Common In Rabkin’s view. “vengeful demonization of the Palestinians has become common. Even the soft-spoken president of Israel claimed that there were no ‘innocent civilians’. In Gaza. Meirev Ben-Ari…said in reference to thousands of Palestinian children killed by Israeli bombardment , ‘The children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves! We are a peace-seeking , a life-loving nation’…Many Jews…have been trying to come to terms with the contradictions between the Judaism they profess to adhere to and the Zionist ideology that has taken hold of them. A new variety of Judaism has taken root in Israel: National Judaism…Among its most fervent followers one finds the assassin of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who had attempted to find an accommodation with the Palestinians, and prominent members of today’s Israeli government.” A letter signed by more than 1200 alumni and current members of the Union for Reform Judaism addressed to the organization on Dec. 16, 2023, declares, “We grieve for the 1,200 killed during Hamas’s Oct. 7th attack and the more than 18,000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military—-almost half of whom have been children—-since then. Israel has cut off water, electricity, fuel and supplies to Gaza. We are deeply concerned that tax dollars have been so easily provided to support Israel’s military assault on Gaza, while we struggle for the basic needs of our communities.” At the same time, a letter was released from descendants of progressive rabbis and leaders to express “our horror at the URJ’s failure to call for a cease-fire in Gaza. We are alarmed that the leadership of our community has not demanded an end to Israel’s devastating violence against Palestinians in addition to the safe and immediate return of the hostages…A decades-long campaign to dehumanize Palestinians has hardened the American Jewish community’s hearts. Atrocities are being committed in our name . We do not consider the killing of thousands of innocent civilians to be a justifiable consequence of ensuring our community’s protection.” “Uncompromising Zionist Rhetoric” The letter concludes: “The URJ continues to actively alienate alumni with its uncompromising Zionist rhetoric…We will reconsider our and the next generation’s membership and support of the URJ unless there is a public, dramatic shift in the way the movement addresses Israel. It is not too late to listen, to open your heart, and to make your children proud.” Among the original signatories of this letter are Zippy Janas, a descendant of Rabbi Julius Rappaport, Chana Powell, daughter of a current URJ rabbi, Talia Yudkin Toffany, daughter of Rabbi Marjorie Yudkin, Zachariah Sippy, son of Rabbi David Wirtschaffer and Hafanyah Perluss, daughter of Rabbi Emily Feigenson. Oren Kroc-Zeldin, whose grandfather Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin headed Los Angeles’ Stephen M. Wise Temple and whose mother Rabbi Leah Kroll was one of the first women rabbis ordained by the Reform movement, is director of the program of Jewish Studies and Social Justice at the University of San Francisco. He went to Jewish Day School and on Birthright trips to Israel. Now, he says that, “Jewish liberation in Israel was predicated on the oppression and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.” He said he rejects “a monolithic pro-Israel identity.” Reform Jews For Justice An organization called Reform Jews For Justice(https://reformjewsforjustice.com) has also been established . It declares that, “As Reform Jews we stand together for Justice, in solidarity with Palestine. We unite in our values to call for a ceasefire, the release of hostages and an end to U.S. military aid to Israel…We have come together to call on our movement to engage in Solidarity with Palestine. We envision a Reform Jewish movement that…rejects a conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism…The URJ’s leaders have unabashedly demonstrated shameful tactics of ethno-nationalism and tribal political priorities over simple ethics and the illegitimate and dangerous conflation of Zionism and Judaism. We have been alienated from the movement that raised us to ask, ‘If I am only for myself, what am I?’—-through binary language suggesting that our affiliation is conditional on Zionism. WE will not stand idly by.” It has been pointed out by many scholars and others that the Palestinians are, in fact, the final victims of the Holocaust, in which they played no role. Deena Dallasheh, a historian of Israel and Palestine who has taught at Columbia University and N.Y.U. notes that, “The Holocaust was a horrible massacre committed by Europeans. But I don’t think the Palestinians figure that they will have to pay for it. Yet the world sees this as an acceptable equation. Orientalist and colonialist ideology were very much at the heart of thinking , that while we Europeans and the U.S. were part of this massive human tragedy, we are going to fix it at the expense of someone else. And the someone else is not important because they are Arabs. They’re Palestinians and thus constructed as not important.” As American Jewish groups which previously opposed Zionism changed their position in the wake of World War II, the American Council for Judaism was established in 1942 to maintain the traditional philosophy of a universal Judaism free of nationalism and politicization. In his keynote address to the June 1942 meeting of the Council in Atlantic City, Rabbi David Philipson declared that Reform Judaism and Zionism were incompatible: “Reform Judaism is spiritual, Zionism is political. The outlook of Reform Judaism is the world. The outlook of Zionism is a corner of Eastern Asia.” The first pledge of major financial backing was made by Aaron Strauss, a nephew and heir of Levi Strauss of blue jeans fame. Attending this meeting were six former presidents of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the president of Hebrew Union College and a former president of B’nai B’rith. Jewish Nationalism Is Secular, Not Religious Judah Magnes, chancellor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, wrote a letter endorsing the Council’s statement of principles saying, “It is true that Jewish nationalism tends to confuse people not because it is secular and not religious, but because this nationalism is unhappily chauvinistic and narrow and terroristic in the best style of Eastern European nationalism.” On Dec. 4, 1945, hours after the first meeting with Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, President Harry S. Truman received Lessing J. Rosenwald, the first president of the Council, in the Oval Office. He called for the admission of both Jewish and non-Jewish displaced persons to Palestine, and urged that Palestine shall not be a Muslim, Christian or Jewish state but a country in which people of all faiths can play their full part,” and that the U.S. take the lead in coordinating with the U.N., “ a cooperative policy of many nations in absorbing Jewish refugees.” Rosenwald testified before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Jan. 10, 1946 and urged that large numbers of Jews be admitted into Palestine on the condition that “the claim that Jews possess unlimited national rights to the land, and that the country shall take the form of a racial or theocratic state, were denounced once and for all.” “Emphasis On Blood, Race And Descent” One of the speakers at the Council’s 1945 conference was Hans Kohn, a one-time German Zionist associated with the University in Exile in New York. He declared, “The Jewish nationalist philosophy has developed entirely under German influence, the German romantic nationalism with the emphasis on blood , race and descent as the most determining factor in human life, it’s historicizing attempt to connect to a legendary past 2,000 or so years ago, its emphasis on folk as a mythical body, the source of civilization.” In the face of the 1947 partition of Palestine, the Council wished the new state well and declared its determination to resist Zionist efforts to dominate Jewish life in America. Rabbi Elmer Berger, the Council’s executive director, outlined the challenge presented by Zionist plans to foster an “Israel-centered’ Jewish life in the U.S. He wrote, “The creation of a sovereign state embodying the principles of Zionism, far from relieving American Jews of the urgency of making that choice, makes it more compelling.” After Israel’s creation, much of the American Jewish community focused its attention upon Israel. Israeli flags appeared in many synagogues, Jewish day schools promoted the idea that Israel was the real “homeland” of all Jews. Israel, rather than the worship of God and the advancement of Jewish moral and ethical values, seemed to dominate Jewish life. As Israel engaged in repressive treatment of Palestine’s indigenous population, Jewish institutions rose to its defense. More recently, with the assault upon civilians in Gaza and the growth of settlements in the West Bank, defending Israel’s behavior, not advancing the moral and ethical insights of Judaism, have dominated much of the established Jewish community. But it has also produced a growing reaction,particularly among younger people, who see a contradiction between Judaism’s moral worldview and narrow nationalism of any kind. The Council Was Prophetic In his history of the early years of the American Council for Judaism, “Jews Against Zionism,” Prof. Thomas Kolsky concluded that the Council was prophetic in its warning about where Zionism would lead: “…many of its predictions about the establishment of a Jewish state did come true…For example, Israel became highly dependent on support from American Jews. ..the creation of the state directly contributed to undermining Jewish communities in Arab countries and to precipitating protracted conflict between Israel and the Arabs. Indeed, as the Council had often warned…Israel did not become a normal state. Nor did it become a light to the nations…The ominous predictions of the ACJ are still haunting the Zionists.” Jonathan Sarna, a Brandeis University historian and author of the book “American Judaism,” says that, “Everything they (the ACJ) prophesied—-dual loyalty, nationalism being evil—-has come to pass.” In his “On Religion” column in The New York Times (June 26, 2010), Samuel Freedman noted that, “The arguments that the Council has levied against Zionism…have shot back into prominence. ..The rejection of Zionism …goes back to the Torah itself. Until Theodor Herzl created the modern Zionist movement…the biblical injunction to return to Israel was widely understood as a theological construct rather than a pragmatic instruction…The Reform movement maintained that Judaism is a religion, not a nationality.” Since that was written, and in light of recent Israeli government actions in Gaza and the West Bank, it seems that Israel, and those in the American Jewish community who defend whatever policy Israel sees fit to pursue, have turned away from traditional Jewish moral and ethical values. Beyond this, while Jewish Americans believe in religious freedom and separation of church and state, Israel is a theocracy with a state-supported ultra-Orthodox religious establishment. Non-Orthodox rabbis cannot perform weddings, conduct funerals or have their conversions recognized. Zionism Represents A Major Wrong Turn For those who have never abandoned the vision of a universal faith of moral and ethical values for men and women of every race and nation, which the Prophets preached and in which generations of Jews believed, Zionism represents a major wrong turn. We are now entering a new era in which that wrong turn can be reversed. The humane Jewish tradition can finally be restored. Those who kept it alive during the years in which nationalism seemed to replace the unique Jewish contribution to world civilization, which also influenced the development of Christianity and Islam, can be viewed as having been indeed prophetic. A new and more hopeful era lies before us. (6143 words) —————————————————————- Allan C. Brownfeld is a nationally syndicated columnist and serves as editor of ISSUES. The author of five books, he has served on the staff of the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and the Office of the Vice President.